Students listen during a career day in 2012 at New Vision Middle School in San Bernardino. The operators of the charter school were rejected by the Riverside County School Board in an attempt to open iEmpire Academy . FILE PHOTO

An effort by REAL Journey Academies to open a countywide charter school has failed.

The entity, which operates four school sites in Riverside and San Bernardino counties sought to open iEmpire Academy, which would have been aimed at students who need intense help in English and math literacy, according to the petition.

But its pitch was recently rejected by the Riverside County School Board.

The charter didn’t meet the needed requirements, a Riverside County Office of Education report states. County education officials’ concerns included the budget, special education program and the need to be countywide instead of local, as most charters are.

“In light of the findings … the petition presents an unsound educational program for the pupils to be enrolled in the charter school,” the report states.

Efforts Friday, Dec. 29, to reach proponents of the charter school were unsuccessful.

County school board members are elected by region, with each trustee representing three to five school districts.

REAL Journey Academies currently runs New Vision Middle School and Excel Prep Charter School in San Bernardino as well as independent study learning centers Excel Prep Academy in Moreno Valley and Success Academy in Fontana. It plans to open Entrepreneur High School in San Bernadino in August.

The new school, iEmpire Academy, proposed to serve students from kindergarten through eighth grade using a model called Success For All. The program is aimed at students in disadvantaged communities, especially those learning English.

The plan was for iEmpire Academy to create two clusters of schools over the next 10 years — first in Moreno Valley, Riverside and Jurupa Valley and later in Banning, Beaumont and Desert Hot Springs.

“Our research has shown that the demographics in these areas would benefit greatly from our whole-school literacy program,” the petition stated.

Administrators in the Riverside, Moreno Valley, and Jurupa unified school districts expressed concerns about the charter in letters to the county education office.

Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, who represents those communities and is chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, sent a letter of support to the county office.

“I feel confident that this organization has the capacity to open and operate a school at a high level and offer an effective school choice in Riverside County,” Medina wrote. “They represent the kind of progressive educational organization that challenges the status quo and ultimately moved other schools to innovate and change.”

Charter schools are public schools, but free of some of the regulations that traditional schools must follow. There is no charge for children to attend, and the schools get much of their funding from the state based on attendance. They are open to students in the chartering and adjacent counties.

While independent, charter schools must be approved by a school district or county office of education, which has responsibility for overseeing them.

Craig Shultz reports on communities in Riverside County, primarily Hemet, Menifee, Perris and San Jacinto. A journalist for more than three decades, he has reported on everything from sports to city halls and schools. He was previously the editor of The Hemet News and The Valley Chronicle. Shultz was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles and graduated from Cal State Northridge.